Science and Culture: Terraforming a volcano, artfully.

From October 26 to November 12, 2010, Indonesia’s Mount Merapi blew its top in the volcano’s largest series of eruptions in decades. It spewed ash and lava rock thousands of meters into the air. Hundreds of thousands of villagers fled, abandoning their homes along with more than 1,000 ha of farm fields to the scalding ash, rock, and mud spilling down the slope (1, 2). The following July, space systems researcher and community artist Angelo Vermeulen trod the soil over what had been the village of Pentingsari, occasionally hearing his footsteps echo in the still-hollow houses meters beneath. He had been invited to the Southeast Asian nation by the House of Natural Fiber (HONF) artist collective in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to create a project that combined art, science, and community involvement. The end result was an ambitious project and a bold statement about renewal and rebirth.